vicious
adj/ˈvɪʃəs/
Etymology PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.
1
Violent, destructive and cruel.
2
Savage and aggressive.
- He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose.1922, Michael Arlen, “2/9/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
3
Archaic Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
- We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.195
- Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who chose, instead of retaining his niece, to bring his mistress under his own roof1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park:
1 more example
- A murrain on you, Reverend Apse/I hope you get caught in a vicious moral lapse.1930, Ogden Nash, Lines to Be Mumbled at Ovington's:
- Synonyms
- scathy
- Derived terms
- vicious circle, vicious cycle, vicious intromission
- Related terms
- vice#Related_terms